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Reconstructing Real Cities in Google Earth
An anonymous reader writes "NewScientistTech has an article up on the way 3D models of real cities are being uploaded into Google Earth to help town planners and architects envisage their designs. Researchers at the University of Arkansas have developed a method for rapidly mapping building, which they are using to reconstruct the rapidly-expanding town of Fayetteville. The researchers say tools like Google Earth and Sketchup could eventually help ordinary citizens get more involved in urban development."
I saw this at the last Star Trek convention (In vegas) they would let anyone sit and play at their booth. it was really fun... and the booth babes where hot!
A reasonable point, except...
Why should the infrastructure upgrades have been paid for by the developer (which really means, as you know, by the new homeowners via a bump in the price of their new houses)?
I take it you're talking about sewage, roads, electricity, new schools, et cetera. Thing is, these are all public resources. Everyone gets their indirect and in some cases direct benefit, not just the new homeowners, and everyone has a say in how they're used.
I mean, if you want only the new homeowners to pay for their water, new streets and traffic signals, schools, et cetera, then you logically ought to also give them permanent exclusive control of those resources. They should be able to gate off any road they build and charge non-residents a toll. If the highway has to be widened, they should have exclusive access to the new lanes. They should have exclusive rights to determine who gets into the new school, and what its curriculum is. The new fire company and new police officers should answer emergency calls only in the new development, et cetera.
No one really wants that, typically. The idea is that public resources are paid for by everybody, used by everybody, and controlled by everybody through the local government, and you don't even try to make sure costs and benefits are precisely equally distributed. You don't charge only the people who use a given intersection for the cost of the stoplight there, or only the people with kids in kindergarten for a new school roof. It's generally considered antisocial and self-defeating to Balkanize a town so that resources and responsibility are assigned to many different parties.
I've heard this kind of argument before, and what often underlies it is a rather shameful "pull up the ladder behind you" kind of attitude that doesn't want new neighbors to spoil the view, drive up property values (and taxes), or load up the schools. I find it unpleasant because it gives a totally unjustified advantage to whoever is first on the scene.